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Employers maintain corporate fitness programs, on-site medical clinics

Despite recent hard economic times, large businesses appear to be continuing their investment in corporate fitness programs and, in another effort to curb high health costs, on-site health centers.

6 Jul 2011

Concept advances for more accountable care to elderly patients

The Chicago Tribune reports on how the health law — via Medicare — is pushing accountable care organizations, a new model that emphasizes coordination. And, the Minneapolis Star Tribune details some of the hesitancy that seems to surround the health law's wellness screenings.

6 Jul 2011

AIDS vaccine may be far off, but path to it is getting clearer

In his latest Washington Post opinion piece, columnist Michael Gerson highlights scientific efforts to create an AIDS vaccine, noting the work of researchers at the Vaccine Research Center.

6 Jul 2011

CMS issues proposed Medicare payment rules

The measure would increase hospital outpatient rates, dramatically cut physician payments and link surgical center payment to quality.

6 Jul 2011

Dems to CMS: Hold firm on Medicaid 'MOE' requirements

Meanwhile, a Government Accountability Office report finds that, although most physicians still accept some new Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program patients, a majority of primary care docs say they have difficulty finding specialists to provide care for young low-income patients.

6 Jul 2011

Drug companies' desires to maintain status quo are 'lethal'

In the second of a two-part Al Jazeera opinion piece series "examining the methods by which multinational drug corporations inflate their expenses and justify their pricing strategies," Khadija Sharife, a journalist and visiting scholar at the Center for Civil Society, looks at U.S. tax laws, lax oversight of international clinical trials, the cost of research on new pharmaceutical compounds, and vaccine manufacturing.

6 Jul 2011

Washington Post examines increase in number of USAID contract suspensions

"The U.S. Agency for International Development, as it cracks down on vendor impropriety, has more than doubled the number of companies and nonprofit groups it has suspended or debarred from receiving new contracts," the Washington Post reports in an article focusing on the agency's suspension of government grants in March to the Washington-based nonprofit Academy for Educational Development.

6 Jul 2011

The essential role of midwives

Mary Ellen Stanton, a senior maternal health advisor at USAID, and Chris Thomas, global health communications and policy advisor at USAID, outline the agency's work to promote better health outcomes for women and children in the developing world on GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog.

6 Jul 2011

States continue push to keep federal money from Planned Parenthood

Also in the news, a national abortion rights organization has filed suit in Texas to block the implementation of a new state law requiring women have pre-abortion sonograms.

6 Jul 2011

Federal officials try again to bolster plans for people with medical conditions

In her latest Kaiser Health News consumer column, Michelle Andrews writes: "Uninsured sick people got some good news recently -- or some of them did, anyway. Starting July 1, the Obama administration reduced the premiums by up to 40 percent in special high-risk insurance plans that the federal government is running in 17 states and the District of Columbia".

6 Jul 2011

Germany to restore half of Global Fund donation withheld earlier this year

"Germany is unblocking half of the funding it withheld from" the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria "following revelations of corruption earlier this year," the Associated Press reports.

6 Jul 2011

States wrestle with Medicaid funding and budgets, contracts, rule changes

News outlets report on Medicaid developments in Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona and Hawaii.

6 Jul 2011

Baltimore symposium to discuss human factors and ergonomics in health-care

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society invites you to attend the 2012 Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, to be held March 12-14, 2012, at the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. Mark your calendars for this exciting first-time event.

6 Jul 2011

Wis. school districts and insurers feud over federal dollars

Wis. school districts that have switched insurers are seeking to get health insurance company affiliated with Wis. teachers' union to release federal funds designed to help cover early retirees, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

6 Jul 2011

Donor fatigue harming efforts to fight drought in Horn of Africa, aid agencies say

As a severe drought affecting Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia forces more people into refugee camps, donor fatigue is harming aid agencies' abilities to work in the Horn of Africa, because "these recurrent droughts used to happen every 5-10 years but what we see now is it basically every other year ... an indication of climate change conditions," Michael Klaus, UNICEF spokesperson for east and southern Africa, told Reuters in an interview.

6 Jul 2011

Treating migraines with behavioral approaches can make financial sense

Treating chronic migraines with behavioral approaches - such as relaxation training, hypnosis and biofeedback - can make financial sense compared to prescription-drug treatment, especially after a year or more, a new study found.

6 Jul 2011

LA Times: Study urges more mammogram guidelines

The standard approach, which is based on age alone, has been challenged in recent years by a number of health experts who contend that some women get more mammograms than they need and others get too few.

6 Jul 2011

Faith communities play a key role in global AIDS fight

"One of the great lessons of this fight is that the single fastest way to mobilize at the grassroots level around the world is through local congregations. Nothing comes close to the size and scope of this pool of compassionate volunteers," Rick Warren, founder and pastor of the Saddleback Church, writes in a CNN opinion piece reflecting on his involvement in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

6 Jul 2011

India must not become complacent despite AIDS control program's success, Prime Minister says

"India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday hailed the country's success in slashing new HIV/AIDS infections by half in the past decade, but warned against complacency," Agence France-Presse reports. Speaking at a conference on AIDS in New Delhi, Singh said the country's HIV prevention program "can justifiably claim a measure of success," but "there should be no room for complacency," as an estimated 2.4 million Indians are living with the disease, according to AFP.

6 Jul 2011

State roundup: Calif. weighs bill to curb premium increases

Assembly Bill 52 … would give the state the authority to approve, deny or modify excessive health insurance rate hikes - much as regulators do now with auto insurance. The bill is a lightning rod for many of the Capitol's most influential interest groups, pitting consumer, labor, small business and health care advocacy groups against the California Chamber of Commerce and hospital, physician and health insurance associations.

6 Jul 2011